Showing posts with label BBC PM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC PM. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2009

Will we never see trials like Karen Matthews' televised? Government refbuffs DPP on letting cameras into the courtroom

Disappointing that Government ministers appear to have given such a cool reception to the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer's view, in a briefing to journalists, that he was in favour of criminal court cases being televised.
According to the BBC, Government ministers are not convinced about letting cameras into court and have no plans to change the rules.
This argument seem to have been going on for years. I used to cover Crown Court and believe nothing beats it for drama. Also I think justice should be seen to be done (by as many people as possible) and the courts should open up to a multi-media world.
I, and I suspect much of the public, would liked to have seen the Karen Matthews trial televised.
The argument against televising court is that defendants and witnesses will "act up" for the cameras. But Karen Matthews didn't need a courtroom to act up for the cameras, as her tearful appeals for "missing" Shannon showed.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Show us where the web money will come from before our regional papers are ruined

I was interviewed about the future of newspapers by Chris Vallance on the BBC's Radio 4 PM programme today and argued that local papers were part of the fabric of communities, like pubs and churches, and could not be replicated by a lot of fragmented websites.
It is my view that there is no obvious substitute for a well run newspaper news desk with some enthusiastic reporters who get out and about, make contacts and whose copy is handled by experienced subs.
My new media friends say there is no reason why websites cannot be as professional as traditional newspapers, it is just news content on a different platform. But there is a big but. Online ad revenues are too thin to pay for a decent sized editorial staff and web users are not prepared to pay a subscription.
Also on the PM programme was Robert Andrews, editor of paidContent:UK, who made a good point, which didn't make it on air, when we were discussing the difficulty of getting young people to pay for news. He said their attitude to news was the same as to music where sales have been hit by file sharing and illegal downloading. As well as getting their music free, the young are used to getting news for free on the internet. The latest email to subscribers to The Word magazine carries this quote. "The most common format of music on an iPod is "stolen" - Steve Ballmer, Microsoft.
Before newspapers are cut to the bone, closed or merged could someone please tell us where the money is going to come from to produce worthwhile editorial on the web which comes anywhere close to that provided, up to now, by regional newspapers.

Long edits of the interviews for the PM programme can be heard here and include Johnston Press chief Tim Bowdler stating that the closure of a local paper would leave "a gaping hole in the social fabric of the U.K."